Currently, trains or rail vehicles which are formed by a succession of carriages, which may or may not be motorized, or wagons have a computerized on-board train control system comprising one or more main processors which are connected to a man/machine interface which is arranged in the cabin via a data transfer network to which there are connected a given number of items of equipment of the vehicle, either directly to this network or via input/output modules.
The man/machine interface is formed, for example, by a computer screen and a keypad which allows the driver to be provided with data and allows instructions to be received from the driver.
Conventionally, the main processor manages the driving and the monitoring of the train or the rail vehicle.
The train or rail vehicle comprises a given number of other items of equipment which may or may not be connected to the main transfer network, such as sound equipment, video cameras, equipment for automatically controlling the train, in particular its speed.
All these items of equipment require a dedicated man/machine interface which is remote in the cabin in order to allow them to be controlled by the driver and the driver to be provided with data.
These man/machine interfaces are each formed by a screen which may be relatively large or small, or display units which are advanced to a greater or lesser extent. These various screens and display units allow data to be provided simultaneously to the driver, but take up a significant amount of space in the driver's cabin and impair the clarity of the data displayed.